Re-Purposing Suzuki: A Hybrid Approach to Actor Training

Re-Purposing Suzuki: A Hybrid Approach to Actor Training introduces a system of text analysis that synthesizes physical, psychological, and vocal components in order to truthfully embody heightened texts and contexts.

By understanding how the author has re-purposed Suzuki and other physical training methods, as well as Stanislavski, readers will gain an awareness of how to analyze a particular training method by extrapolating its key components and integrating it into a holistic, embodied approach to text analysis. The book explores a method of physical scoring via Rules of the Body and Rules of Composition, as well as a method of approaching heightened texts from Greek drama to post-modern playwrights that draws on the individual actor’s imagination and experience and integrates voice, mind, and body. Readers will be able to either replicate this approach, or apply the logic of its building blocks to assemble their own personal creative process applicable to a variety of performance genres.

This is a source book for actors, theatre students, practitioners, and educators interested in assembling tools derived from different sources to create alternative approaches to actor training. While the process outlined in the book evolves in a classroom setting, the components of the pedagogy can also be practiced by individuals who are interested in finding new ways to explore text and character and bring them into their own personal practice.

Maria Porter is an actor, director, and teacher. As an actor she has performed in New York and regionally at such theaters as Clubbed Thumb, Salt Theater, Target Margin, Milwaukee Playhouse, The Hangar Theatre, Hartford Stage, Virginia Stage Company, and The Kennedy Center. Her work demonstrations and master classes in her original pedagogy that marries the Suzuki method with other training techniques have been in festivals and conferences in Wales, Denmark, England, Cuba, Peru, Greece, Spain and Switzerland. She has directed and co-created several ensemble-based performances which have been featured in festivals in Italy, Canada, Prague, New York and Scotland. Maria received her M.F.A. in Acting from the University of California, San Diego and is a member of the Magdalena Project, an international network of women in theater. She is on the faculty of Long Island University, where she is Professor of Theatre, and a recipient of the David Newton Award for Excellence in Teaching.